


Ectoplasm

by irwin8hemmings



Series: Ghost Au's [1]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), 5SOS
Genre: Ashton is starting to get annoyed with how often he steps in Calum's ectoplasm, Ashton lives in the apartment that Calum haunts, Ghost!Calum, Human!Ashton, M/M, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-26 22:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9926216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irwin8hemmings/pseuds/irwin8hemmings
Summary: Ashton is too stressed to deal with Calum's slimy mess when he forgets not to phase through their kitchen wall, and for a ghost, Calum is surprisingly repentant.





	

**Author's Note:**

> THESE ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, AND DON'T FOLLOW A PLOT LINE 
> 
> The prompt for this work is:  
> "Listen, I know you can't help it but you literally drip off ectoplasm every time you phase through walls and I'M the one who has to clean it up so can you just use the doors maybe?"

Ashton was in a fairly good mood as he walked back to his small apartment nestled in the west side of North Beach, San Francisco.  Situated above the Liguria bakery and across from Washington Square Park, Ashton's cozy home was the best spot in town if you asked him.  His lack of roommates made things inevitably quiet, which suited Ashton just fine-he thought of himself as more of an introvert anyways. Legally, Ashton didn't have roommates, but he did not live alone all the time.  His rental apartment was also home to Calum, a ghost who found it particularly comfortable in Ashton's second-story building.  Calum liked to argue that he was rightfully there first because he had been haunting it before Ashton got there, which was true, but Ashton was the one who paid the rent, so he liked to think that he called the shots.

The fact that he lived above a bakery always made Ashton's apartment smell delicious, and by now he could tell when Louise, his landlord and the owner of Liguria, was baking.  Today the smell of pastries was wafting up the stairs and under the door that separated the bakery from the entrance to Ashton's little place.  It was a homey smell and reminded him of his mother's baking when he was growing up in New York.  The smell never failed to put Ashton in a good mood, and it worked it's magic on him as he fumbled with his house keys and worried about term papers.  His shift at the local library was over and now he had all evening to do nothing but more work.  

The warm smell of baking was being smothered by his door as he closed it behind him, and with it went the good mood.  Ash settled into his post-work stupor and kicked off his shoes, letting them fall wherever they pleased.  As much as Ashton loved living alone, it was times like these when he really wished he lived with someone who he could vent to about his busy schedule. He couldn't count on Calum to be there for him all the time, he was a ghost after all and didn't appear that often.  

Honestly, his relationship with Calum wasn't very deep in Ashton's opinion.  They didn't talk much and Calum didn't like to talk about himself- a subject about which Ashton didn't pry- and wouldn't show Ashton his human form for reasons that, again, Calum wouldn't disclose.  Calum didn't scare Ashton anymore, but he took some getting used to.  He was a human-sized black orb that pulsed with energy.  Ashton had touched Calum once, and had gotten his whole arm covered in slime.  Calum had laughed and told Ashton that he drips ectoplasm on whatever material thing he touches.  

Ashton hadn't tried to touch Calum after that.  Actually, that one little detail about Calum's ability to interact with the material world was exhaustingly annoying.  Whenever Calum would forget that he slimed everything he touched and phased through a whole wall, he left a huge mess behind.  Usually a large puddle on the floor from the drips down the wall, and an impression of his human figure outlined in ectoplasm.  

Even though it was insanely annoying to clean up after him, it peaked Ashton's interest whenever he saw the long, lanky build of a young man outlined by slime.  Calum always apologised and promised to use the doors, but it was easy for him to forget.  Not to mention that your average cleaning product wasn't able to de-slime Ashton's apartment very well.  It took a lot of trial and error to find the perfect mix of acidic chemicals to cut through ghost ectoplasm.  It turned out that some acetone and Lysol worked best but modern day cleaning supplies weren't ready to deal with supernatural messes just yet.

Which is why Ashton's already lousy mood got even worse when he headed for the kitchen and stepped in a puddle of ghost goop.  it seemed that Calum phased through the kitchen wall without realising and left his slime behind for Ashton to clean, great, more work to do.  He was tired and hungry, and now his socks were sticky (he still hadn't found a good way to remove ectoplasm from clothing yet) and Calum was nowhere to be found.

"Goddamn, fucking ghosts." Ashton muttered, taking off his soiled socks and trudging over to the cleaning cupboard. "They don't care about leaving their goop all over the place because _they_ don't have to clean it up."

He yanked the door open and squinted at the bottles there.  Of course there wouldn't be any acetone left because why would the world want to make life just a tad bit easier on him?  Nevertheless, Ashton grabbed the Lysol and slammed the cupboard shut again, leaving his socks on the floor and stomping over to where there was six feet of slime dripping down his wall and lots more by his feet.  If Ashton hadn't come to hate the stuff so much, ectoplasm would be quite a pretty thing to look at, it was iridescent and shone purple, green, orange and silver when the light hit it from different angles.  Calum always said that it looked that way to humans because we weren't able to perceive it's true colour, which made Ashton exponentially more curious about ghost culture and the life of a ghost in general.  But Calum always disappeared before Ash could ask any pressing questions.

Come to think of it, Ashton would have really liked some company, but as usual, Calum was gone who knows where, leaving Ash to clean his wall and floor all alone.

"Calum, I swear if you don't come back here soon, when I see you again I'll..." Ashton's muttering trailed off because he couldn't think if a threat that would work for a ghost.  Obviously he couldn't kill Calum since he was technically already dead, which snuffed out basically any other threat out there.

Ash just muttered. "I'll find myself a different ghost to hang out with." It was petulant, and Ashton didn't really to know how to look for another friendly ghost, or if there were any other friendly ghosts.  Some of the things Calum _had_ told him made him awfully glad that Calum was the soul who lived with him and not something else.  Ashton knew there were a lot of things that a ghost could do, some of them weren't pleasent when attributed to humans.  But he was fairly sure that the ghosts who possessed those abilities were few and far between, and rarely chose to reside on Earth when other, more attractive (as Calum had put it) dimensions were available.  

Which made Ashton question why Calum couldn't move into one of those other dimensions and stop leaving Ashton to clean up his slime.  Ashton realised that he had been scrubbing the same spot on the floor with vigour from how pissed off he felt, but he couldn't cut through the slime and the Lysol wasn't doing anything but giving him a headache.  He had hours of work left to do, dinner to make, but if he didn't get Calum's ghost slop off the wall and floor it would be even worse to deal with in the morning, and he felt like giving up because he wasn't sure if the ectoplasm would eat a hole through his wall and floor, all he knew is that he had to clean it up right away. 

Ashton would like to call himself someone who is strong and can hold himself together, but for one reason or another, he couldn't.  He needed to work on his papers and the time was ticking away and his legs were hurting and he really had a bone to pick with his "roommate".  Just as Ashton was about to yell at the sky for Calum, hoping he could hear him with his ghost-powers or whatever, he felt a familiar hovering presence.

Ashton huffed and didn't look in Calum's direction.  Maybe he was overreacting, this kind of thing happened sometimes but Ash was at the end of his tether and didn't feel like being diplomatic. "So, you finally came back." Ashton harrumphed.

Both he and Calum knew that neither one of them kept tabs on the other.  Sometimes Ashton didn't see Calum for weeks.  Calum didn't respond to his accusation, but Ashton felt the apologetic tone to Calum's aura and softened a little.

Calum only communicated through his energy when he needed to share a feeling rather than verbal information.  Ashton knew that Calum genuinely felt badly for causing Ash the stress he did, which made him realise he was being a bit harsh.  Calum could pick up on Ashton's energy because he was the only human he had been in contact with for long enough to become attuned to Ashton's thoughts.  Calum said that it's like he can read his mind but only the tone of the thoughts, not the exact words being spoken, and Ashton could tell that Calum was reading him right now, searching for the amount of time before he broke down from stress.

A wave of empathy washed over Ashton. "It's okay, it's okay.  I know you forget sometimes, Cal," Ash ran his hand through the hairs on the back of his own neck, "I just really wish you would use the doors." He laughed a bit, trying to change the tone but Calum pressed a more urgent aura of apology to Ashton.

"Y'know, I would want to hug you if you couldn't slime me.  As a human I could really use some comfort." Ashton wasn't trying to make Calum feel bad, it was Ashton's overreaction anyways but Calum reached out with his energy and let Ashton feel his remorse.  For a ghost who didn't see Ashton all that often, Calum was feeling very sorry for himself.

"I don't think you would like it all that much if I hugged you, mate." Calum laughed, using his voice now. "Considering how you respond to my ectoplasm on everything, plus, I'm not sure how to get it out of human hair."

The black orb pulsed with more energy as Calum laughed again, probably imagining Ashton covered in his slime and trying to rid himself of it.  Ashton smiled at the happier mood that was now emanating from Calum's form, but his problems were still there and Ashton still needed to clean up Calum"s mess.

"Thanks for coming to see me and all, Cal, but I really don't know how the hell I'm gonna get your slop off of my floor and wall, considering we're all out of acetone and the shops are all closed by now."  Ashton rubbed a hand over his rumbling tummy. "And I'm really hungry and I have work to do, so, I guess I'll see you sometime later."

Ashton turned back towards his task at hand and sighed, running his hand through his hair.  He heard Calum clear his throat and turned back around.

"Actually, I came back to bring you this," A large pink bottle of acetone converged into existence just in front of Calum's form.  It was covered in ectoplasm, and as soon as Ashton noticed this another wave of sheepishness washed through him courtesy of Calum.

"I knew you were out of it and as soon as I realized that I slimed your wall I went out to get some.  You wouldn't believe how hard it is for me to try to hold on to objects here.  It was almost impossible not to drop, hence why it's covered in so much slime."  Calum finished and the bottle floated over to Ashton.

Ashton appraised it with minimal scorn because Calum never tried to interact with objects here.  When he reached out to grab the bottle, the cap started to turn  by itself.

"Here, let me open it for you, you probably don't want to touch it." Calum sounded very sheepish because to Ashton's knowledge, ghost didn't touch things because they couldn't or because it was very uncomfortable for them to move objects around.

"Why are you so keen to help me clean now?  I thought you weren't able to because you couldn't interact with material items...?" Ashton speculated.

Calum didn't answer, only poured some acetone over Ashton's soiled wall and the bottle disappeared.

"It's back in your cupboard with the Lysol.  Also, I pick you up one of these...". Calum's voice was very careful as he made a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser appear.  It was in a plastic bag which was covered in ectoplasm, but the actual eraser was fine.  Calum opened the back and held it upside down so that the eraser fell out and hit a clean part of the floor. 

Ashton picked it up with and hand on his hip. "How come you can do all this but can't help me clean up after your own messes?"

Calum didn't answer but Ashton was determined to wait for the answer this time.  It took all of two minutes of silence and the aura around Calum getting guiltier and guiltier.

"Well, technically I can clean it up..." Ashton's eyebrows shot up, but Calum hastily continued, "but, but, I would only make more ectoplasm on whatever I touched so it wouldn't help you at all.  It only works in my world where ectoplasm is like dust, it's everywhere but nobody really pay attention to it.  I can clean it up there but here I would only make myself more of a hindrance, I swear."  Calum's aura pulsed nervously.

Ashton waved his hand dismissively and let out a breath, "Fine, fine, whatever.  Thanks for the stuff, Cal, really I appreciate it, but I wish you would tell me more about yourself.  Like why couldn't you have said something sooner?"

Calum pulsed smugly, "You humans are greedy creatures by nature.  You know enough."

"Okay, but I want to know more than enough!"  Ashton was very interested in Calum's nature, a subject Calum never breached.

"As I said, greedy creatures." Calum scoffed and disappeared.  Ashton knew he only changed his form to one Ash couldn't see, he still felt the hovering presence in front of him.

"Promise me, one day.  One day you have to tell me about you, please?"  Ashton said to the air.

There was another smug feeling about the space around him and Ashton knew that this would be an ongoing battle.

"Fine, fine, be stubborn then.  One day you will tell me more though.  I don't care if you label me greedy.  It's frustrating living with someone you know next to nothing about."  Ashton finished, moreso to himself as he turned back to his wall that was slowly puckering around the edges of Calum's ectoplasmic imprint.

"Oh shit!" He whispered harshly to himself and grabbed the Magic Eraser, dipping it in some of the acetone on the floor and scrubbing like his life depended on it.

Calum's presence got even more smug.  Whatever form he was in, Ashton could almost guarantee that Calum was doing the equivalent of laughing at him. Ashton said some choice phrases, but continued to scrub.

Calum vanished completely from the apartment a half-minute later and left Ashton to do the clean up.  All by himself, once again.

_Ghosts_ , Ashton thought, _you cannot count on them for more than five minutes._

**Author's Note:**

> Sadly, I don't know how to insert links here so I can't link you to the Tumblr that these are from, but their name is "thescriptorium" if anyone was wondering where the prompt came from :-).


End file.
